<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><b><span style="font-size:24pt;font-family:Helvetica">Theater review: ‘Freud’s Last Session’ at
Actors’ Summit</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:7.5pt;font-family:Helvetica">By Kerry Clawson </span><span style="font-size:7.5pt;font-family:Helvetica;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in"><br>
</span><span style="font-size:7.5pt;font-family:Helvetica">Beacon Journal staff writer</span><span style="font-size:8pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:#727b84">Published: March 5, 2013 - 10:30 PM</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:#f4f3ee"><span style="font-size:8pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica">Sparring about the existence of God creates fascinating drama at
Actors’ Summit in Akron in the absorbing play <i>Freud’s
Last Session</i>, by Mark St. Germain.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica">This work gets into the inner psyches, belief systems and hearts
of two seminal figures of the 20th century — Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis — as
they engage in a battle of intellect in Freud’s London study. Given such weighty topics, St.
Germain never ventures too far into the highbrow, but rather delivers an
entertaining play full of humor and heart.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica">Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, has fled Nazi persecution in Austria and has invited young Oxford professor Lewis to visit him. The year
is 1939, on the day England
enters World War II. In Freud’s beautifully appointed study, designed by Rory
Wohl with numerous richly colored Persian rugs, the psychotherapist’s
comfy-looking couch is ever present.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica">Actors Brian Zoldessy and Keith Stevens create subtle humor as
Freud and Lewis tease each other about who needs to lie on the couch. One of
the greatest things about this play is that the two characters take turns
rising to the top in their intellectual power struggle, with each at times
needing the couch as he reveals his deepest fears or pain.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica">Zoldessy, a theater professor and director at Cuyahoga Community College,
brilliantly brings to life Freud’s crusty, dry humor as well as his physical
infirmity at age 83. The sparring is more friendly than adversarial, as these
men ultimately prove that they respect each other.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica">Under Neil Thackaberry’s direction, the chemistry in this two-man
show is delightful. Zoldessy, making his Actors’ Summit debut, has an impressive resume
including work on and Off-Broadway as well as in TV and film. (Eight years ago,
his work was unforgettable as the neurotic, mentally disabled Arnold in <i>The Boys Next Door</i> at
Porthouse Theatre.)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica">Stevens, a regular at Actors’ Summit, is a multitalented actor who always
delivers an excellent performance. The two actors have the famous Actors’
Studio in common: Stevens is a lifetime member after studying there in New York, and Zoldessy has been associated with the
Actors’ Studio both in New York and in Los Angeles.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica">Zoldessy evokes Freud’s curmudgeonliness and Stevens paints a more
proper, restrained Lewis. A big commonality is their resentment of their fathers:
Freud despised his Orthodox Jewish father as a “bitter failure” and Lewis
disliked his tyrant father intensely.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica">This fictional story, suggested by <i>The Question of God</i> by
Dr. Armand M. Nicholi Jr., occurs 20 days before Freud’s death. It is a study
in contrasts, as Freud suffers from inoperable oral cancer and Lewis is headed
toward the high points of his career, having not yet written <i>The Chronicles
of Narnia</i> or <i>The Screwtape Letters</i>. St. Germain employs
rich language and brutal imagery as Lewis speaks of the hell of World War I and
Freud, at times choking on his own blood, reveals the physical agony of having
his upper jaw replaced by an implant.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica">So why has Freud invited Lewis to his home? The psychoanalyst
reveals that he wants to learn how an intellectual can “abandon truth and
embrace an insidious lie’’ — what he calls religion.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica">Zoldessy’s Freud argues vehemently against religion, yelling that
God cannot be proven historically. Lewis says his religious conversion was slow
but his belief in Jesus as the son of God is now simple.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica">“Things are simple only when you choose not to examine them,’’
Freud counters. That’s just one of the volleys in their debates about religion,
morality, war and sex.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica">In <i>Freud’s Last Session</i>, Zoldessy and Stevens play a
moment of panic beautifully, when air raid sirens go off and the men scramble
for gas masks. This scene reveals that Lewis, recently converted to
Christianity, is not comfortable about meeting his maker and Freud, who had
said he is ready to die, really isn’t.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica">This drama is a work of fiction but it explores some of the
weightiest issues of 1939 Europe. Against the
backdrop of World War II, it captures a tumultuous moment in world history and
brings alive what might have been, had such a meeting between these two
cultural giants actually occurred.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Helvetica">Arts writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or <a href="mailto:kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com">kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com</a>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Freud’s Last Session</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt">WJCU radio review for Arts On
The Heights</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt">By Fred Dolan</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"> Hello, Cleveland.
This is Fred Dolan for Arts On The Heights.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"> I was delighted when I heard that Actors
Summit in Akron
was producing <i>Freud’s Last Session</i>, the off Broadway hit from a few
years ago.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"> <i>Freud’s Last Session</i> is an imagined
meeting between Freud and C.S. Lewis.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The setting is Freud’s home
in England.
It’s September 3, 1939,
the day that England enters
the war against Germany
and Hitler. Freud and his family were Jewish and left Germany after his daughter Anna was
interrogated by the Nazis in 1938. Freud is also dieing of mouth cancer. He is
extremely uncomfortable with an upper jaw prosthesis that causes chaffing and
bleeding. He will be dead in a few weeks.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"> Freud has invited Lewis to his study to
question him over why he abandoned atheism and embraced the Catholic church.
During the course of the one act meeting, world history, personal history, and
where God fits into the mix are all part of this fascinating exercise.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"> The two men respect each as they joust
verbally - each one scoring points. With no clear cut winner, it’s a great
meeting of the minds., Intelligent, fascinating and entertaining stuff for the
brain.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"> For this play to work, you need two pretty
equal heavyweight actors to slug it out with each other and Brian Zoldessy as
Freud and Keith Stevens as Lewis are terrific together.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Each maintaining an
unshakable view on whether God does or does not exist, yet almost always
keeping the discussion on an intellectual level. Zoldessy’s Freud is beautiful
mix of his physical discomfort and old age as he approaches death, coupled with
Freud’s undiminished mental ability, with a hint of whether there may be a God.
It’s a memorable performance.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"> Steven’s C.S. Lewis is properly British with
a bit of hero worship thrown in for Freud, but also a man firm in his
convictions. As the British might say, “Well done!”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"> If exciting theater is your game, make the
trip to Akron.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"> <i>Freud’s Last Session</i> runs Thursday through
Sunday through March 17. The theater is located in downtown Akron in Greystone Hall at 103 S. High Street and features free,
guarded parking.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"> For complete details, visit
<a href="http://actorssummit.org">actorssummit.org</a>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"> This is Fred Dolan for Arts On The
Heights. </span></p><p></p>